LEARNER drivers due to take their test face a difficult choice after Rochdale's test centre in Drake Street was closed.

The Driving Standards Agency decided to lock the test centre doors for good after a brick was thrown through a window, nearly hitting one of the examiners.

Learners will now have to take their tests in Bury or Failsworth or wait until the new Rochdale test centre opens early next year.

One angry father, Garry Whitworth, whose 18-year-old daughter Gemma is due to take her test in two weeks, said: "Taking a driving test is frightening enough without all this extra worry.

"I'm having to pay extra for Gemma to have double lessons in Bury because she has only ever driven in Rochdale and she has a very short time before her test. She is getting extremely nervous.

"Taking the test could also cost more for people as the instructor will charge extra for the time it takes to get to Bury or Failsworth."

A Driving Standards Agency spokeswoman said the organisation had hoped to wait until the new building was open before closing the Drake Street centre, but staff safety was of primary importance.

She said the agency had hoped to open the centre at Blueberry Park, Kingsway, at the end of January, but the building had changed hands, which had delayed the move.

Landlord Harry Veevers said: "I have been told that the building had been attacked for not the first time.

"It is a possibility, from what I have been told by some of the workers, that they were victimised in the run up to the company leaving the building, and possibly physically threatened. I have no plans to let the building until the start of the next tax year."